In our modern market economies, many companies have tried to maintain or enhance growth and profitability by focusing upon finding synergies that can be obtained by acquiring or merging with or by alliances with other companies. These synergies, for example, could result from revenue enhancement, cost reduction provided by eliminating duplication of resources, economies of scale or vertical and horizontal integration. Business mergers are therefore becoming increasingly more frequent occurrences in many markets and industries. Such mergers are becoming more and more complex with the involved companies being large and diverse, and often much of their fiscal health and growth upon the success of the merger. Success of the merger is thus of paramount importance.
Many businesses turn to external consulting firms or other specialists to evaluate proposed mergers, to assist in planning activities in an upcoming scheduled merger, and to manage the transition period for an ongoing merger. Much must happen in a relatively short time period for a merger to proceed successfully, including the merging of organizations, cultures, and technologies, and the elimination of redundant resources. The best elements from each of the original companies must be maintained, even as new elements needed by the resulting merged company are established. An experienced consulting firm or other organization of specialists advantageously brings to bear its pooled expertise and best practice knowledge with regard to these merger-related (or acquisition-related) changes. While one or more of the managers of the merging companies may have experience regarding a few prior mergers, the more experienced specialists may have the benefit of working on more total mergers than the combined experiences of all the managers of the merging companies. Thus, specialist firms are able to capitalize upon their wider scope of past experience and specific knowledge regarding the lifecycle of mergers, utilizing knowledge of commonly encountered problems and pitfalls, guideposts for tracking progress, and ways to solve problems and avoid pitfalls to more efficiently direct the merging companies to meet the ultimate business objectives underlying the merger.
While specialists can be hired at the pre-merger stage (i.e., during negotiations or prior to a deal being announced publicly), oftentimes, specialists are hired into a post-merger situation to manage a merger after the companies have already signed contracts and announced the merger, and sometimes even after various post-merger integration steps have been taken. When a particular specialist or specialist organization is brought into a merger situation after the pre-merger stage, they must be able to get a quick, yet accurate snapshot assessment regarding where the merging company stands in the various tasks that should be completed by the merger integration process. Only after getting an accurate snapshot can the specialists utilize their personal experiences and expertise to advise the client companies how to improve their post-merger integration efforts. Thus, in order to make the business relationship between the specialist and the merging companies successful, the specialist organizations must have the capability to assess and guide the progress of the merger efficiently and accurately at various times within the merger lifecycle.
The management of post-merger integration can be heavily dependent upon the personal knowledge of the involved specialists. While a particular “lead” specialist within a specialist organization may be very knowledgeable regarding particular areas of post-merger integration, that particular specialist will likely not be able to perform a complete and accurate assessment in a quick manner on their own. These lead specialists typically enlist additional personnel resources from their organization, usually in the form of a team of less experienced specialists that will work under the direction of the lead specialist. These team members are often given the tasks of information gathering and sorting, such as by contacting and interviewing employees of the merging companies and obtaining, reviewing and organizing records relevant to post-merger integration activities. These can be complicated as progress assessments are often necessary at various times during a merger integration. Notably, merger integrations generally evolve according to a life cycle of different phases, characterized by different goals, tasks and activities. Thus, certain types of information may only be relevant to (or more relevant to) making progress assessments during one phase of a post-merger integration while less relevant or irrelevant to making progress assessments undertaken at other stages or phases of the integration. The team members therefore need direction regarding what information to seek at a particular time and from what sources to seek that information.
Since a specialist organization's worth to merging companies lies in the collective experiences, knowledge capital of its various individual specialists, and the technological tools it has developed to support mergers, it is important for those organizations to leverage this past experience and knowledge effectively by disseminating it to other specialists within the same organization. Only then can this knowledge and experience be utilized fully in the progress assessments of various mergers by many specialists within the organization in a manner that enables teams to perform the planning and analysis as quick, economical, consistent, and accurate as is possible. Thus, in order to make the business relationship between the specialist and the merging companies successful, there also is a need for the specialist organization to have mechanisms for effectively sharing the knowledge and experience of lead specialists with their team members and for employing technological assets that have been developed to efficiently implement such knowledge and experience. Such sharing allows the specialist organization to be certain to obtain the most relevant information needed to identify those important post-merger activities and tasks to be addressed.
Examples of such technological tools and assets may include computer applications that can increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team productivity for organizations and business units. Such computer applications provide tools for collaboration and connectivity across organizational and geographic boundaries and can offer employees access to desired information. Other such computer applications provide tools and functionality relating to project management and execution.
The SharePoint family of products and services from Microsoft Corporation is an example of one such application, which provides a foundation platform for building flexible and scalable Internet-based business applications. SharePoint provides administrative controls for managing storage and Internet infrastructure and gives IT departments a cost-effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment. The SharePoint server provides server capabilities that can influence organizational effectiveness by including content management and enterprise search functionality, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across networks for enhanced business insight. These tools may be supported over Intranet, extranet, and Web applications across an enterprise within one integrated platform, without relying on separate fragmented systems. The collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools necessary for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.
The Project family of products and services from Microsoft Corporation is another example of such an application, which provides organizations and business units project management tools for managing schedules, budgets, and timeframes of various projects. Project includes tools and functionality directed towards informing and controlling project work, schedules, and finances, and keeping project teams aligned and in communication.
However, although SharePoint and Project provide certain functions, additional features and functionality that are not offered by these or other existing products or services are desirable. For example, there is a need for such management and efficiency related computer applications that further provide program-level hierarchy and security, customized user portal, milestone tracking capabilities, and customizable workflows. Additionally, there is a need for such computer applications that are focused on the specialized demands that arise from mergers and acquisitions.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved software toolkit for leveraging existing application functionality with customized functionality that is not currently available. A toolkit directed towards managing business processes that further provides program-level hierarchy and security, customized user portal, milestone tracking capabilities, and customizable workflows would be beneficial. Moreover, there is a need for a merger integration toolkit that is customized to address the particular requirements of the business processes and the IT requisites for businesses engaged in a merger or acquisition.